God has blessed us in so many ways at McIlwain! Lately that blessing has been joyfully clear on Sunday mornings. There’s little doubt that some of that joy is the result of simply being together, face-to-face, as we continue to emerge from a too long covid fog. God made us to fellowship with him together—and as we press hands, embrace, listen, and laugh we vibrantly fulfill his purpose for us. Simply put, we are tasting some of the sweet fruit of glorifying God and enjoying him right here, right now.

But it is the worship itself that so many have been commenting on—and with good reason. God has provided us with a full array of talented instrumentalists who are so are talented and skilled: French horns, viola, violin, cello, guitar, bass—in addition to piano and our beautiful-sounding organ. Under Donny Monk’s nurture and leadership the sanctuary choir has quite nearly exploded—they are quickly running out of room!

Then there is the congregational choir—the rest of us! From where I sit, facing the congregation, I can verify that our congregation sings with verve, gusto and joy. Sometimes it simply overwhelming.

It is a massive understatement to say that, as a pastor, I am thankful for the tremendous experience of worship each Lord’s Day at McIlwain. Not only hearing the powerful songs but seeing the expressions on so many faces makes the movement of God’s Spirit among us so tangible. He is worthy, indeed of our honor and praise!

How do we plan worship?

Of course, our weekly corporate worship doesn’t “just happen.” There is a tremendous amount of effort, thought, and prayer that goes into what we offer, first to the Lord, and then to our McIlwain family to lead us before his throne together. It can sometimes be an overwhelming thing to realize that our responsibility is to provide a God-honoring path to direct our hearts and minds to see, praise, and even hear God each week. It is daunting—but God has been pleased to bless our often weak efforts and we are so humbled and grateful. 

How do we go about that planning? What principles and convictions guide us?  The Worship Planning Team’s ministry is founded on three fundamental principles:  Worship is about God; Scripture regulates worship; and Worship is discipleship.

Worship is about God  

In worship we are to “ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name” (Psalm 96:7, 8).  This means two things: First, God is the  subject  of worship—who he is and what he does. Second, the  audience  in worship is God, not the congregation; for that reason the goal of worship is not to seek to move people emotionally but to seek to give God worthy praise for who he is and what he does in redeeming his people.  However, in his grace and goodness to us, when he is faithfully and devotionally praised, God, the high and exalted One, enthrones himself upon the praise of his people (Psalm 22:3)—and blesses us with his presence in ways that deeply move and transform us. 

Scripture Regulates Worship

If worship is about God, then God’s Word tells us what worship looks like and how we are to “do” it. That seems obvious—but today in evangelical churches we might see everything from arm-wrestling matches between pastors (oh, yes), live animals, film snippets, to even dance routines. Of course, these are not bad things in and of themselves—but do they belong in worship? 

We go to the Bible alone to discover the nature of reverent, acceptable worship (Hebrews 12:28). God’s Word establishes principles that transcend mere cultural expressions.  This means we can’t canonize either a particular style of music or expression of liturgy. In practice we find that the parameters of this regulative principle are not restrictive but give us a tremendous biblical freedom to express our praise to God within our own time and culture in various styles, musical genres, and instruments (Psalm 150).

Worship is Discipleship

As someone whose primary pastoral desire is to see Jesus formed in us, I see this as critically important. Jesus is still making disciples today, changing hearts and lives by the daily working of his Holy Spirit through his Word—and one of the primary ways he does this is through biblically true, Spirit-driven worship. Jesus himself said those who worship must do so “in Spirit and truth” (John 4:23, 24). This means that the worshiper must be born of the Spirit and, consequently, led by the Spirit in the truth of God’s Word in order to grow in the knowledge of and expression of praise to God.     

Worship, therefore, is not merely a tool in discipleship—it  is  discipleship. For that reason, those who plan and lead worship must be keenly attentive to planning worship services that recognize the opportunity of growth in grace that public worship offers. When we worship in Spirit and truth,  Jesus himself  is discipling us, shaping our hearts by his grace more and more to find our identity and purpose in him and teaching us to speak and to live as his redeemed followers everywhere he leads us.

In corporate worship we see who God is and we humble ourselves in the response of repentance and faith; we hear the assurance of God’s grace in Christ; we sing of his faithfulness and offer him the “honor due his name” (Psalm 96:7, 8); we fellowship with him in the Lord’s Supper. But, most importantly, we sit at the Lord’s feet, as it were, in the preaching of the Word. All of what we do in worship is discipleship.

How it all comes together

If indeed Jesus himself is discipling us in corporate worship, it stands to reason that the most important part of his discipling us is the preaching of his Word. For this reason, the immediate context of each worship service at McIlwain is the sermon that is to be preached. It is our belief that the parts of worship that “surround” that sermon are best developed with the themes of the text in mind. The Worship Planning Team’s prayerful goal is to lead the worshiper along a biblically developed path that presents and develops the key themes of that morning’s sermon text so that, by the time I stand to preach, the Holy Spirit has, in a real sense, already begun “preaching” the sermon, planting the seed of the Word of God into the soil of our prepared hearts.

It's about tone, not throwing bones!

By building the worship around the sermon text for each week, each service will necessarily have a particular tone; the Scripture and especially the music reflect that tone. If the sermon is about repentance and forgiveness, the tone of the service might begin focusing on quiet contemplation as we humble ourselves before the Lord in confession; here singing a contemplative Psalm like Psalm 51 (“God Be Merciful to Me”) or a hymn like “Just as I Am” might be appropriate. Then, as we hear the Scripture speak the good news of the forgiveness of our sins, the tone would likely progress toward joy and even exuberant praise. Here we might use “And Can It Be that I Should Gain” or the more recent “His Mercy Is More.” With each element we seek to ensure that the music and singing, whatever its “style,” is appropriate in both its content and its tone.

Now, I recognize very well that we as the Worship Team are ultimately fallible people who are prone, like everyone else, sometimes to be influenced by our subjective preferences. Each of us on the Team have our own “favorite” hymns, songs, and styles of music. We work very hard to be accountable to each other in making sure that we stay as close as possible to our commitment to what best suits the theme and tone of the worship service—not just what we like to sing. If I had my way, we would sing “And Can It Be,” “I  Greet Thee Who My Sure Redeemer Art” and “My Worth Is Not in What I Own” every week. But that would be self-serving—and would not give us very much opportunity to be richly discipled by Jesus in worship!

Transcending style and formula

What all of these means is that we don’t plan worship with a worship “style” in mind; neither do we follow a “formula” that makes sure we have an equal balance of traditional versus contemporary hymns. We never “throw bones” in worship—a hymn here for those who love them, a contemporary song there for those who prefer these; a Psalter selection every now and then to balance it out. This highlights the most important point: worship is never about personal preference; once it is, it has become about ourselves and our personal pleasure and not about God and his appropriate praise.

This approach doesn’t mean we don’t have a regular structure in our worship. The basic structure of worship at McIlwain is framed by simple biblical elements: God’s call to his people to come to him in worship; our response in adoration; humbling ourselves in repentance and confession, which may be done in silent meditation or corporate prayer; praise for God’s grace in forgiveness; prayer and intercession; and hearing from God in the sermon. These basic elements are present in every worship service, but McIlwain does not employ a strict weekly liturgy, which, if not careful, can tend toward ritualism; we should never do anything in worship that is more about form than substance.

Whenever appropriate, we include other common elements of Reformed worship such as creeds, a confession of faith, and even catechism lessons.  One of the most important facets of these elements is that they show that we stand with the saints of the past, honoring the expressions of their faith and worship that have been handed down to us. But we believe it is equally important to continue to add to that heritage, to pass on to future worshipers a growing heritage of biblically-grounded new music and expressions.

Sitting at Jesus’ feet

When I was a young believer I envied Mary—not Mary the mother of Jesus, but Mary the sister of Martha, who sat at Jesus’ feet listening to Jesus teach. 

Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:38-42)

I envied her because she sat where I longed to sit, rapt, I always imagined, her hungry eyes fixed on Jesus as he talked. Was he answering one of her questions? Was she merely sitting in on his instruction to the twelve? Was he telling a parable? In my young eagerness to learn and grow I wondered if I would have the same kind of opportunity one day in heaven to be discipled by Jesus, just like Mary. It made sense that in eternity I would have plenty of time to take a turn sitting at his feet the same way, though I also wondered how it would happen when several other million want the same thing.

But the reality is that I don’t have to wait to be discipled by Jesus—none of us do! When we gather to worship each Sunday, Jesus is discipling us right here, right now, and we get to return to him our deepest thanksgiving and praise. That is a blessing beyond words—beyond even a thousand tongues!